When the Covid-19 pandemic first hit us, it left many of our customers struggling as they were advised not to leave their homes. Some needed repairs or were awaiting their new specs to arrive in-store, others needed their contact lenses or had concerns about deteriorating vision. Then lockdown occurred and we reluctantly had to close all stores, adding to the difficulties our customers (and ourselves) faced.
Since the start of the pandemic, Directors Nigel Barraclough and Jeremy Heynes along with Karen Barraclough of our Polegate store, have been hand delivering spectacles, contact lenses, solutions and dry eye products to our customers who were unable to leave their homes and unable to visit our stores. Nigel Barraclough was also on call for clinical advice when customer's had concerns about their vision. He says:
"We care about all of our loyal customers, we are obviously aware of how much they rely on their eyewear to complete even simple daily tasks. When the lockdown occurred, many customers were left awaiting orders that they were unable to come and collect from us. We couldn’t leave them in the lurch like that and we need people to stay indoors where possible, so we are delivering orders ourselves."
With stores in Eastbourne, Battle, Bexhill, St. Leonards, Polegate, Seaford and Uckfield, there was a very wide radius to cover whilst carrying out these extended services. The team arranged for future contact lens deliveries to be sent directly to homes of customers until things return to normal.
“Our eyes are the most highly developed sense so we need to maintain eye health at all times. Our primary focus is on elderly and high risk patients but we are completing orders for everybody. Thoughts go out to all of those affected by Covid-19 and we plan to continue to support the local community for as long as possible.”
We’re hoping to re-open in June to serve our customers with an aim to finally begin performing routine sight exams in July. This is all dependant on advice from the Government but we will keep you posted on each update.
Follow us on Facebook to see more and to see all of our 'Barracloughs at Home' posts which focus on our team of the Barracloughs family during lockdown.
